Train fares to increase from 21/01/2013

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...?homepage=true

It's not clear from this article whether the extra fares will be payable on tickets already booked.

Also please see the news item in the Hindustan Times.

This hike is all around.

AC 2 tier and AC First Class have become further costlier by 6 paise and 3 paise per km respectively.
It has been practice in the Railways to collect differences of fare from the commuters, even if the tickets are booked.

Let's see how the government reacts on the protests against the hike...

. How much is 140,000 paise?

It would be INR 1,400 = 25.58 US Dollar at today's rate

That's not so bad then. I hope that the TTEs will have change.

It is first hike in 10 years, but it should have been in stages...

$10 says they back down and re-introduce it incrementally. This is India. There will be demonstrations. For us expats/visitors, not a big deal. For people from villages who rely on the network... good luck with that. Sticker shock.

I thought AC fares went up in the last budget.

Very surprised at the timing,just under 5 weeks before the rail budget, is this allowed?

21st May till 26th June, could this be big holiday season in India?, that's the period ticket price increase sales would roll into the bank before the budget speech, surely this is about more than that?????

It is possible that the increase in fares may be levied retrospectively - ie anybody travelling on/after 21/01 will have to pay the difference of fare on the train irrespective of when it happened. With the previous increase in fares (only 1A/2A) the difference was levied retrospectively on tickets purchased before the fare increase. I had to pay INR 309 extra on one train because of this.

Steven

My guess is that finally somebody has been prepared to grasp the nettle. Indian Railways are broke and desperately need to improve their revenue. The Minister last year realised that but Ms Bannerjee stabbed him in the back for political reasons. Now she has no say in the railways and common sense appears to have won out.

Here's what the Hindustan Times thinks about it, as quoted on iri.

So, 534km in 2A would add an additional Rs32, is that correct?

Give or take 4 paise.

to put it in perspective, about 60cents au. I think we as tourists can afford this but not so sure the locals will see it that way. Zamba.

Yeah on the 'common' people getting a very serious sticker shock. At the risk of getting in to politics (which this is about because, as has been said, for foreigners, this means nothing), this government's always had to straddle a fine line between it's neo-liberal/business-friendly policies and friends and it's pro-rural poor populism. The past few years they seem to have had problems doing so.

I'm curious how this will play out given how important rail is in this country.